this is my first time on any bird forum so i hope someone could help with my problem

my wife recently rescued a female Indian ringneck that someone had released, the bird had been seen for a week around her work and seemed very hungry and thirsty, not wanting such a lovely bird to simple perish in the wild my wife managed to rescue her and bring her home, where we have bought her a big cage and many toys, (she has food, water and some toys in her cage all the time)

the problem we have is that she is very vicious towards us (although she has only been with us for less than a week), i am unsure of her age although she does have the subtle green ring around her neck but dull red beak . Her cage is very large and she has numerous toys to play with, i am also home all day and interact with her plus she has time out of her cage everyday.

She will happily sit on my foot or knee, whistles away especially when i leave the room she will call until i return and she will also take the smallest sunflower seed from my fingers but any attempted to stroke her or get her to stand up onto my finger results in very vicious biting which always break the skin and causes bleeding, reading a few articles on biting parrots i have simply tried to ignore the biting but unfortunately when she's bites she will not let go so it is quite painful so i cannot just pretend it does not happen until she decides to stop, i have also cut the finger off a glove so when she bites it does not hurt, but every time i put this on she simple just flies away from me then when i remove the finger glove she will stay but bite again,,,, Please any help will be gratefully received... ( sorry for the size of this post but i wanted to make sure i put down all back ground information) again please HELP!

Welcome to the forum and thank you so much for taking the poor lost bird in! John is right, you are expecting way too much too soon.

Parrots are not like dogs or cats that, once they are socialized to people while babies, they would go to any kind human. As any prey animal [dogs and cats are predators], they are very distrustful of anything and anybody they don't know so she will need time to get to know you and learn that you are no threat to her. Once you get her trust, she will begin the process of bonding with you. But it's imperative that you do nothing that will make her bite you because this is what we call the honeymoon period, where the bird is assessing its new home and humans, and the very foundation of your future relationship with her. Aside from that, it's essential never to put the bird in a situation where it feels that the only way of getting its point across to you is biting you. It creates a terrible precedent and can become a habit which will be very difficult to break.

You are doing almost everything right, it just needs the smallest tweak, actually! You rescued her from sure death, you provided her with a nice large cage [make sure all her perches are natural tree branches and not dowels and that her roosting perch is at your eye level when you are standing up -prey animals don't like anybody looming over them - put the cage very near a window so it can get the exposure she needs to dawn and dusk and, make sure the back of it is solid -as in against a wall or having a piece of material draped over the back to create a 'wall'], food [make sure you are providing her with lots of produce, especially fruits -their natural diet- and VERY low protein food -a budgie seed mix will do for now], company and out-of-cage time. Now, all you have to do is allow her to get used to you and learn to trust and love you - and you are pretty much doing it already by allowing her to come out of her cage and keeping her company. Spend as much time as you can in the same room she is in, talk/sing/whistle to her, offer her a treat every now and then but do NOT ask her for anything. The ONLY time you should ask her to step up is if she goes down to the ground or flies away from her cage and does not go back into it on her own and, if you have to do it, use a stick and not your hand. But, if you time the out-of-cage time correctly, she will got back on her own. In order to do this, you would need to feed her something like gloop, mash or chop in the morning [always accompanied by raw produce, of course!], let her out at dawn by just opening the door to the cage [it's always good to tie some nice tree branches to the side of the cage so she can climb up as, for birds, there is safety in high places] and take out all the food out of her cage putting fresh food two hours or so after she wakes up with the dawn. By then, she will be real hungry and will go back into her cage on her own to eat. Mind you, she might not do it the first or second day but, eventually, she will.Same thing with her dinner, let her out when the sun is beginning to set [around 3 pm] and put her dinner in her cage at 4 pm, as the dinner should be the budgie mix, she will be eager for it and will go right in without you having to force her in any way.

And be patient! Parrots timetables are not like ours, they take their own sweet time for everything so don't think that because it's being a couple of months and she still doesn't love you, it's a lost cause because it's not. Also, she will revert every now and then and it would seem that you go two steps forward and one back all the time but that is the way they are and, in time, they do settle down. The best thing you can do to speed things up is to keep a strict and steady routine where you do the same things with her every single day [and that means EVERY single day, weekdays, weekends, sick days, holidays, etc]. It will not only reassure her, it will also decrease the inevitable stress parrots suffer in captivity and it will allow her to settle quicker.

Hi all I am after some advice again, it appears my little female ring neck might be a male but this is not the issue. I am after advice on body language I will try and up load a photo but just incase this does not work I will try to explain.At the moment my little bird seems to still be very vicious towards everyone, even tho he will sit on my knee and whistle away with me, sometimes he even ruffles his head, drops it slightly and makes little tweets, I have been told this is a sign of affection and that the bird wants wants a little stroke but this again results in a vicious bite were the bird will not let go.Any advice would be helpful

Yes, the little sneaks do that! They make you believe they want a scratch and then quickly lift their head and bite your finger. I take in birds that are given up because of aggression and most of them do that - as a matter of fact, I am going through exactly the same thing with Davy, the male redbelly. They all want to get scratches but allowing a human access to their bodies is a matter of trust - a trust that, in cases like this, was broken by a previous owner who did not know how to treat them right. What I do is always tell/ask them if it's OK to give them a head scratch by always using the same phrase [mine is "Pica pica?" but you can use whatever you want as long as it's always exactly the same word or words] and always making a distinct movement with my hand [I raise it at his eye level and with the palm facing down, I move my fingers as if I was scratching - again, this is just my own way of doing it, you can do whatever comes naturally to you]. So, whenever they put their head down [mine also would scratch their own nape with one of their claws as if saying: "See? This is what I want'] I go: "Pica pica? Pica pica?" and move my fingers while doing it. Usually, they bow their head as if they were agreeing to it so VERY slowly and looking at their heads VERY intently, I lower my index finger and VERY softly simply move it from their 'forehead' to the top of their crown in a caress [the scratches come later] and, as soon as I see their head moving back, I quickly take my finger away and tell them "No!". If they happen to actually 'catch' my finger, I tell them: "No! Don't bite! Bad bird!" and leave it at that [I don't use any form of punishment, only scolding and giving them the cold shoulder for a few minutes]. If they happen to allow me to caress them with my finger, I tell them: "Good Boy! Pica pica good boy!". Eventually, they stop doing it and you are able to scratch their head BUT I continue asking their permission even when I've had the bird for years and never, ever bites me anymore -I think it's good not to take things for granted with them and to give them a chance to accept or reject the physical attention. Now, this does NOT work immediately or even soon and, as with everything else with parrots, there is always the 'two steps forward, two steps back, two steps forward, one step back' process. It takes time, patience and persistence but it does work very well in the end.

There are NO devil birds, only birds that were not treated with the respect and care one needs to put into dealing with a being that is highly intelligent. Not that I have not referred to some of them with derogatory nicknames because I have and still do! Sweetpea, my male Senegal, was 'The Senegal from Hell!' - this bird attacked me several times a day every single day for about 3.5 years when he started 'slowing down'. He was and still is the ONLY bird I've feared to the point that I actually not only not enjoyed going into the birdroom [which is one of my pleasures in life] but I actually dreaded it! It took 5 years for this bird to forgive humanity [because he did not only hate me but every single human on Earth] and become my friend. And, right now, I have Paquita, a female parrotlet that is the meanest thing -I call her 'The Queen of Mean' but I LOVE her to pieces and actually enjoy her spunk tremendously. I don't know if you know how small parrotlets are but they are tiny things and this little girl is so fearless that she would take on anybody and anybirdy that gets too close to her cage - she literally climbs down real fast and, with her beak already open, runs around the cage trying to bite my hands while I clean it - and I think she is priceless!